NON-ATTACHMENT TO THE BUILDING BLOCKS: Sutra 1.15 describes non-
attachment; it is a process that evolves progressively as practice
deepens. Eventually it leads to a supreme non-attachment, which is
described here. Paravairagya means there is non-attachment even in
relation to the most fundamental building blocks of all
manifestation. This level of non-attachment comes through the direct
experience of pure consciousness or purusha (3.56).

THREE LEVELS OF NON-ATTACHMENT: We can think of this as a systematic
process of developing non-attachment (vairagya) at three levels:

1) GROSS WORLD: There are many objects of our daily lives for which
our mental impressions are colored with various degrees of attraction
or aversion. This is the first level of developing freedom from those
bondages and experiencing of greater inner peace.

2) EVERYTHING BETWEEN: There are many types of objects between the
levels of the gross world and the subtlest building blocks. After the
mind is stabilized (1.33-1.39), these subtler levels are explored and
set aside with non-attachment and discrimination. This includes, for
example, meditation and non-attachment to pranic energy (3.40), the
five elements (3.45), the senses (3.49), and the subtler aspects of
mind (3.50).

3) SUBTLEST BUILDING BLOCKS: These are the three primal elements
(gunas) that are addressed in this current sutra. The idea is that
the yogi becomes non-attached even to the subtlest building blocks
(paravairagya).

ANALAGOUS TO FREEDOM FROM ATOMIC PARTICLES: This concept of levels
may seem foreign, but we are all accustomed to this in our world. If
we compare this to only the physical universe, it would be somewhat
like becoming non-attached to protons, electrons, and neutrons, which
are the particles that form atoms. Notice how the physical universe
is also constructed in levels or layers:

Imagine that you were free from attachment and aversion to the
particles (protons, electrons, and neutrons). Then (in our metaphor)
you would be free from attachment and aversion to all of its evolutes
as well, including, molecules, compounds, and all of the physical
objects of the world.

SUPREME NON-ATTACHMENT: Similarly, this is the suggestion of supreme
non-attachment (paravairagya) to the gunas, the three primal elements
that the yogis speak of as the prime constituents of the manifest and
unmanifest matter (prakriti). Non-attachment to the gunas includes
non-attachment in relation to not only the gross world, but also the
entire subtle, psychic, astral plane, as well as the causal out of
which they arise.

PARAVAIRAGYA COMES AFTER SELF-REALIZATION: On a practical level, this
is not to say that we must attain the paravairagya level to attain
direct experience of the center of consciousness (purusha). Rather,
it is describing where non-attachment ultimately leads once you have
the tool of samadhi and direct experience.

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